Lopez, who said he had no problems with his apartments in Houston and Colorado, told City Council members in a packed Tuesday evening special meeting that he supports a new set of regulations meant to give greater protections and recourse to Dallas renters.

But technically, Lopez’s water heater issues are already covered under the state’s property code. Landlords and the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas argue the city should focus on enforcing the current rules. Instead, they argue, the city is throwing out the baby with the bathwater -- and forcing them to hike rents -- by toughening the minimum housing standards.

The housing standards debate sits in the shadow of the city’s latest legal fight against Dennis Topletz, a landlord who owns dozens of substandard rental homes in southern Dallas. City officials have failed for years to get Topletz to bring his properties up to code.

Kathy Carlton, director of governmental affairs for the association, said the regulations now go beyond the city's original intent to snuff out slumlords. She said she is “deeply concerned” about the process and how it could punish good and bad landlords alike.

“There is no other city that has as tight of regulation as Dallas is proposing,” Carlton said. “Dallas has never taken the lead on these types of code issues. For them to take the lead on this, it's going to be more restrictive than any other city in North Texas. It’s very odd.”

City staff raised similar objections to many of the proposed changes. But the City Council’s housing committee ignored the staff’s recommendations.

Committee chairman Scott Griggs called the changes “surgical” and said the staff did great work on the broad changes. But, he said, city staffers don't get to dictate policies and the council didn't like their recommendations.

“There were philosophical differences between the staff and the committee,” Griggs said.

The proposed changes include more frequent inspections; higher standards for air conditioning and water heating capabilities; requirements for crime watches and crime information in all apartment complexes; making bedbugs a shared responsibility for tenants and owners; more explicit steps for mold remediation; and stiffer penalties for landlords.

The association claims the changes, especially the air conditioning standard that units must be able to cool apartments to at least 80 degrees, will increase rents by 10 percent. They argue that better enforcement of the current standards will produce better results without the hassles.

But tenants told council members that the proposals are a godsend. Lopez, who is dealing with bedbugs, urged the city to take up the recommendations.

Dr. Barry Lachman, president of the Asthma Coalition of Texas, told the council he was “appalled” by what he saw last fall when he walked through a dozen apartment complexes in the Bachman Lake area.

He found mold growing on vents and bathrooms surfaces, wastewater spillage, pests and walls riddled with holes. Tenants also reported allergy-related problems that they attributed to their living conditions.

In recent months, Dallas Area Interfaith leaders have complained to City Council members about landlords who paint over mold, pest control bills handed to tenants and confusion over contracts that some Spanish speakers don’t understand because of the language barrier.

One of the proposed changes would make landlords provide a lease in the native language of the tenant, but city staff argues that would be difficult to enforce and costly because of the diverse languages spoken in Dallas.

Several residents said their landlords were dismissive of complaints about pests. Patricia Vega, a Bachman Lake resident, told the council she has moved her family six times. At one apartment complex, her husband noticed bed bugs weeks after the family moved in.

“We reported it, but they never fumigated,” she said.

Vega told the council the apartment complex also ignored the family’s complaints about mice in their unit.

The Rev. Jesus Belmontes of the San Juan Diego Catholic Church said the poor living conditions hurt children the most.

“These conditions have led us to believe that Dallas has failed its most vulnerable,” he told the council.

Council members will receive another briefing from staff Wednesday on the changes. They have been weighing comprehensive changes to the city’s housing policies as a dearth of middle-class rental homes and crumbling neighborhoods, especially in southern Dallas, has left a hole in the tax base.

The housing standards are a major first step. Some want the council to go further.

The Texas Tenants Union proposed restricting rent increases until a year after a property is brought up to code and considering landlords’ nonrenewals of leases to be a form of retaliation.

Sandy Rollins, the union’s director, said some of her proposals probably won’t go anywhere this time, but she wants to open the dialogue.

“We need decent housing for the people who live and work here in order to have a healthy city,” said Sandy Rollins, the union’s director. “Landlords who are ripping people off need to be reined in.”